MP's observe a minute of silence after Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki adressed his speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France on February 6, 2013. Marzouki denounced "the odious assassination" of his friend and opposition leader Chokri Belaid in an impassioned speech Wednesday that brought tears to the eyes of Europe's politicians. Prominent Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid was shot dead outside his home in Tunis on Wednesday, sparking angry protests by his supporters and attacks on offices of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party. AFP PHOTO / PATRICK HERTZOGPATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images

Strasbourg, France -- The morning high-speed train from Brussels pulled into the lonely train station of the provincial French city of Strasbourg. As the doors opened, the chaotic scramble for cabs, cars and buses heralded an extraordinary phenomenon of international politics: The European Union's "traveling circus" was back in town.

Hundreds of EU parliamentarians and their staffs were completing their monthly 270-mile legislative migration, one that takes them from their own parliament in Brussels to, well, their own parliament in Strasbourg - for just four days.

The cost to the EU taxpayer: an estimated $245 million a year.

All at a time when the European Union, which opens a contentious budget summit on Thursday, is desperately trying to find ways to cut spending to overcome its financial crisis.

The European Union set up two parliaments, one at headquarters in Brussels, the other in Strasbourg, as part of a complex diplomatic dance.

Tucked on the French side of the Rhine River, Strasbourg became an emblem of the warm ties France and Germany had nurtured since World War II. Critics say that such lofty symbolism is an absurd luxury at a time when austerity measures are threatening pensioners, slashing health budgets and causing unemployment to balloon.

EU leaders are hoping to use their two-day summit to trim more out of a $1.35 trillion seven-year budget. Scrapping the expensive commute, many critics say, could come in very handy.

"The outside world looks on with amazement that all of these years after the Second World War, we are still perpetuating this anachronistic homage to the Franco-German reconciliation," said British Member of the European Parliament Edward McMillan-Scott.